Thinking of trying Ubuntu

Man of Honour
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Well my CD never arrived, so I'm going to try and download the file. Just one question - I go onto their website - which iso file should I download?

ubuntu-6.06.1-alternate-amd64.iso
ubuntu-6.06.1-desktop-amd64.iso

What's the difference if anybody knows? :confused:
 
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CDs do take a while to arrive, the correct iso would be the desktop one (which provides the graphical installer on a live CD). The alternative CD is for text-based installation.

Same end goal, different method.

Are you sure about going AMD64 rather than i386? You'll miss out on the windows media codecs and flash (and a few other things).
 
Man of Honour
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Hmm...is that the case?

I thought I would give it a try since I have some free time right now, but would only really consider it if I could replace windows xp.

I'm downloading the 64bit version right now, and I think I might have to cancel. There are no Creative X-fi drivers for linux and I don't think winamp is compatible. VLC Media Player looks extremely complicated to install as well lol :o

This may be more complex than I think...
 
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VLC would be quite simple to install. Most linux distributions supply a large collection of software in internet repositories which you can easily access with the graphical tools provided with the distribution.

For VLC, it would be as simple as opening the Add/Remove software tool (from the Applications menu), typing "VLC" into the search box, ticking it, and pressing apply. This then downloads VLC and installs it, placing its icon in Applications>Sound & Video. Ubuntu supplies about 19000 packages this way.
 
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What you could do is download VMWare and install Ubuntu onto that. I've just down it, and it works sweet. It's a nice way to try it out without having to reboot into a LiveCD or something. You can also download pre-compiled images to use from the VMWare site.

Matt
 
Soldato
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it is the way i have gone. i had ubuntu on my laptop but after a nightmare trying to set up the wpa wireless i stuck it on vmware. only need it to compile C code for uni really, and to learn about linux!

daven
 
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I have started to use Ubuntu now as a dual boot with XP, the only thing that I dislike about it is that there is no drivers for my x-fi sound card, although if anyone knows of any it would be much aprreciated. :)
 
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BillytheImpaler said:
Nope, Creative refuses to produce any drivers and they rufuse to document their hardware for open source coders to write a driver. Creative is one of the worst manufacturers in this regard.

Creative have stated they'll be releasing linux X-Fi drivers at some point next year I believe.

(though I may be wrong as I can't find any info on it...)
 
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Man of Honour
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BillytheImpaler said:
Do you have any audio headers on your motherboard? The vast majority of on-board sound hardware is well supported.

I've pretty much shut down the onboard sound in windows. Will it open up again in Linux. The thing is my sound card is much better than the onboard hardware and I'd rather it worked so I can enjoy it.
 
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greenlizard0 said:
I've pretty much shut down the onboard sound in windows. Will it open up again in Linux. The thing is my sound card is much better than the onboard hardware and I'd rather it worked so I can enjoy it.

Provided the onboard sound is not disabled in the BIOS, it should be available in ubuntu.

It's a bit of a shame about the X-Fi. Instead of giving information about the card to the ALSA (advanced linux sound architecure) devs, Creative decided to create their own closed-source driver, which is due for release some time next year.

I guess it's part of the problem of building or buying a machine to run windows then trying another OS on it - the hardware might not be supported, but is by third party drivers in windows.
 
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